Hey everyone.

Another Physical tank. Yaaay. Do we really need more tanks in a meta that has just one more trial left? No. But maybe yes?!

Aphmau Overview

Aphmau’s kit is short and pretty concise. I like it. In Base she’s got a lackluster 83% break, a super strong 135% earth imperil on demand (single target though) that comes with an imbue to self, a dispel and a perfect dispel on her Grandis (2 uses per battle). What seems like a dumpster fire of a kit is actually pretty rad. Considering the fact that Aphmau is a true tank in Brave Shift and has a True Brave Shift (meaning she can freely switch between Base and Brave just like Noctis can), she’s our first NV tank who’s also a decent breaker. Her Base LB has 85% breaks to all stats with 120% imperils to a couple of elements (fire, ice, lightning, water, wind, and earth), too. What’s good is: Aphmau retains her tanking passives in Base so once you’re done setting up her mitigation in Brave Shift, you can freely switch to her Base to break the boss for example. She’s also got a pre-emptive 70% Full Break auto cast if you start in Base Form.

Her Brave Shift has 65-80% cover mit at 4 turn duration, a 75% general mit at 4 turns duration and a 4 turn cooldown with 4 turns duration for 50% physical mit. She can also imbue fire to self and imperil at the same time fire by 135% - pretty rad for a tank. Did I mention she’s got permanent T-Cast? Yeah, Gabranth is kinda jealous right now. Brave LB is kinda meh, but whenever you’re fighting mechs, it’ll come in handy with 75% enemy type mitigation (P/M). She does have a preemptive Cover if you start in Brave Shift by the way.

TMR & STMR Evaluation

Aphmau’s TMR is good in general, though I would prefer a Loyal Knight Steiner treatment, as in: 100% TSW DEF when wearing a fist rather than the 50% for anything. Why Fist? Because that’s the only weapon type she can innately wear. Also: Snow STMR finds another use, but it has less DEF than her own STMR. Anyway: It’s a versatile TMR which will also benefit units such as Behemy.

Aphmau’s STMR was already good to begin with. The ATK buff (due to new damage formula that takes ATK into account even for DEF-scaling abilities) to her weapon is a very welcome thing but it won't ultimately make her a viable dps and that's why I won't elaborate on her dps-capabilities going forward. He mods are low anyway so it kind of is pointless. DPSers have better options anyway (DV weapon, NV Edel STMR, Trial Weapon for example), so yeah. The Fist weapon itself is quite neat and provides another 50% TSW DEF. Aphmau should technically reach pretty high DEF-values.

Vision Card Evaluation

Aphmau’s Vision Card is – in terms of stats – identical to the one of Gabranth. Differences show up at the passive side of things. Aphmau’s card wants and requires you to use fists for another 40% DEF in total (Lvl 4 7 passives). At Level 10 you gain another 50% TSW DEF but has no restrictions on it – which I find intriguing. It’s a good card for those units who use fists. So her and Snow. Comparing the two cards doesn’t really do much because they’re used for different things. Nonetheless: Good card, good card.

Tank Comparisons

If you’ve read my King Behemy review, you know what’s coming! I just extended the table with Aphmau here. Yes, could’ve taken Gladio into the equation but yeah, let’s not. He’s good but not important, tbh.

In conclusion: Aphmau has her niche and in that one she really excels. Does she fully replace someone such as Kafetiria or Vinera? Nah, but when you want to role compress in say, maybe Morale Battles, I can see some use for Aphmau. She’s good and will get you through all current available content, easily.

Damage taken calculations

Just like I did for the first tank comparison, I will also NOT use eHP. The metric itself is highly misleading in a state of the game where dying isn’t an issue, and the more pressing matter is: How long can you go before you can’t deal with the damage anymore without a healer? eHP can’t answer this question because you don’t factor in cooldowns and just assume the worst case to always happen. That’s not a good model to try and make work in real trials. It’s why Behemy scored super well on all eHP charts but ended up being the worst tank for most trials in the end.

Here’s a Screenshot of the gearing. I used the same gear and variables (300% DEF for all 4 of them to make it a fair fight) on the builder when I switched from EX 1 to 2 and finally EX 3. We’re NOT going to use Guard. Guard doesn’t accomplish anything because every single one of these tanks has the spare room to use it – contrary to popular believe, even Snow does. These builds are not practical at all and only serve the purpose to show off each units' theoretical maximum of DEF and the damage mitigation that follows.

The formula I’m using to come up with the values below is: (X/DEF) * avg cover mit * phys def * gen mit

Suppose x = 10,000,000

Unsurprisingly, Snow is still king when it comes to raw tanking. That 90% general mitigation he can keep up for all eternity makes him super bulky. Just from the comparison of the four units, Aphmau comes in second and will prove to be a very capable tank all around while also being a very respectable breaker. You could easily take her to the Asura trial for example and thus have a tank and breaker in one unit without any compromise. None of the other tanks can do that. Keep that in mind when looking at these numbers. The only shortcoming is that she’s got no emergency defense that Gabby and Behemy have for example.

How does she fare in the meta?

Aphmau may not be the strongest but she is the most versatile tank. She super slot efficient and does a few neat tricks for fire/earth teams, mainly providing strong 135% imperils. This is a double-edged sword, though. On the one hand: There’s no trial coming up that will require a Phys tank. You won’t need her for DV. On the other hand, we still have this thing called Morale Battle (or whatever it’ll be called) where a tank might actually come in handy. We don’t know but I can foresee units with huge role compression be king. Aphmau would fit here perfectly as a tank plus breaker.

If you are a newer player, Aphmau will easily carry you through all trials that require a physical cover tank.

Should you pull

I don’t think Aphmau is a must pull because there is no content to use her in…yet. Things may change when Morale Battles release and everyone – me included – will regret not pulling her. That’s something nobody can say with certainty right now. She’s not a total dud off-banner pull because her TMR/STMR are pretty good and the unit, like I said, is very good in general. It’s just that we are kind of oversaturated in the Phys. Tank department. Nonetheless: Newer players get another chance at an excellent tank.

Best of luck should you decide to pull! Have a wonderful rest of the weekend and feedback is always appreciated.

Cheers

Livedili